Tiger Woods hits to the fairway from behind a tree on the sixth hole. / Phil Long, AP

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

by Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports

AKRON, Ohio - Everyone in the massive galleries following Tiger Woods in Friday's second round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational was thinking about one thing.

A 59.

Woods, however, had his mind set on increasing his lead and putting himself in the best possible position to earn his fifth victory of the season. So while the gallery was depressed as the world No. 1 fell two strokes shy of the Holy Grail - a 59 in golf - Woods was in high spirits as he assumed command of the tournament with a 9-under-par 61 on the South Course at Firestone Country Club.

"Am I disappointed?" Woods said when asked about missing out on a 59. "Absolutely not, nope. Sixty-one's pretty good. I'm not bummed.

" â?¦ I'm very happy I was able to post that. I just kept thinking, you know, whatever lead I had, let's just keep increasing this lead."

On a day when the next lowest score was 66 and the field averaged 71.1, Woods took a seven-shot lead on Keegan Bradley (68) and Chris Wood (68). Bill Haas (68) and Henrik Stenson (70) were another shot back at 5 under.

Paired with his 66 in the opening round, Woods is at 13-under 127 after 36 holes. Woods, a winner here seven times but not since 2009, started his round birdie-eagle-birdie, added another birdie on the seventh, and then began his inward nine with four consecutive birdies that cranked up the 59 watch.

But he missed a 9-footer for birdie on 15 and a 6-footer for birdie on 17 to end his chances of shooting golf's magic number. He canned a 26-foot putt on the final hole to match the best score of his career, which he previously shot three times - here in 2000, in the 1999 GTE Bryon Nelson Classic and in the 2005 Buick Open. He had 22 putts on the day and 12 one-putts, including on the first seven holes. His eagle putt came from 20 feet, and his birdies came from 3, 13, 3, 7, 5, 20 and 14 feet.

"I had it going today," Woods said. "I made a couple key par putts to keep the momentum going. â?¦ I certainly could have (shot 59).

" â?¦ I felt I was in total control of my game. Obviously things like that don't happen every day, and it's fun when it all comes together and I was able to take advantage of it, especially on a golf course like this. This is not exactly an easy golf course. As you can see, 6-under is in second, so the guys aren't tearing this apart. And the fact that I was able to shoot what I shot today, I'm very proud of that."

Playing partner Hideki Matsuyama, 21, was very impressed with what he saw playing with Woods for the first time in the opening two rounds.

"I knew that he was looking for a very short stroke, like maybe 57 or 56 possibly, but he was not making much putts on the last stretch," he said. "But it was a good lesson for me looking at his play, and I really enjoyed playing with him."

Joe LaCava really enjoyed carrying Woods' bag. LaCava has been Woods' sidekick for his past seven wins and was Fred Couples' bagman for many years, including 1992 when Couples won the Masters. LaCava still gets excited when he sees great golf shots - and he saw a lot of them.

"His ball-striking is what led to that 61," said LaCava, who had Woods sign the tee sheet that he will keep with his most cherished golf memorabilia. "What I was most impressed with was he was hitting all the shots that were called for. If the pin was tucked and he needed to hit a cut, he did. If he needed to hit a draw, he did. I know people think his putting was great - and it was - but his ball-striking was the reason he shot 61."

Woods has shot 59 before - in a round with Mark O'Meara and Isleworth Golf and Country Club in Windermere, Fla., the weekend before the 1997 Masters, where Woods set boatloads of records in winning his first Masters. At Firestone, he was 9 under after 13 holes and needed two birdies in his last five to shoot 59.

"The funny thing is I didn't feel uncomfortable at all," Woods said of his quest for a 59 in tournament action. "The good news is I have shot it before. To do that at the time at my course, you had to be 13 deep to do it. I was only 9 today at that point. I've been 10-, 11-under par before out here, so to be 9 is nothing that was uncomfortable or unusual. If I had to get to 13, it would be a different story; that's a lot. But just a couple more coming in, I had two opportunities to make a couple putts there at 15 and 17, so it certainly was an opportunity, but when you're playing a par-70, it's certainly a lot easier.

"But still, 9-under through 13 is pretty good.

" â?¦ Would it have been nice to shoot 59? Yeah, it would have been nice. I certainly had the opportunity. I had five holes to go, but I was only 9-under par. It's different when you have to get to 13 and things of that nature to shoot 59. But I just had two more out of five holes. I just didn't do it."

A perfect example of Woods being more concerned with winning the tournament than shooting 59 came on the par-5 16th. Woods hit a 379-yard drive and had 265 yards to a water-protected green. The lie was a bit downhill and Woods elected to take the conservative approach. He laid up to what he called was a perfect number - 89 yards - but the ball was in a depression, and Woods knew he had to fire his approach long to make sure the ball didn't spin back into the water hazard. He had 30 feet from which he two putted.

Despite his lead, Woods is not getting ahead of himself. The forecast calls for overnight thunderstorms that could stretch into Saturday morning. Tee times have been pushed back to 11 a.m., with threesomes going off both the first and 10th tees.

"We have a long ways to go," Woods said. "(The 61) put me in a nice position going into the weekend."

The final five holes

Through 13 holes Woods was 9 under par, including four consecutive birdies to start the back nine. Firestone is par-70, meaning he needed only two more birdies to card a 59.

No. 14: Woods made it 21-for-21 on putts from under 10 feet so far in the tournament. His momentum nearly stalled when his second shot left him a long ways away from the hole, and he had to chip it to go over the edge of the green. But the chip left him about 8 feet, and he drained it to save par.

No. 15: On the 216-yard- par-3, with a 5-iron, Woods knocks it to about 9 feet for another birdie. Not this time. Woods misses the birdie putt but taps in for par. He needs two birdies in his last three holes.

No. 16: This is a 667-yard par-5, and Woods finds the fringe just off the fairway off the tee. Reaching in two, especially with the lake in front of the green, is probably not an option. He has 260 over the water ... And he pulls an 8-iron and lays up. 90 yards to the flag, wedge in hand ... Perhaps his worst shot of the day, he launches it well long and now will have 20 feet down the hill for birdie. The long putt doesn't break left, as Woods wanted it to, and he will have a couple of feet for par. Boom. Now he has to go birdie-birdie to get that mythical 59.

No. 17: It's all coming unraveled ... Woods misses the fairway with his tee shot on the 400-yard par-4. If he has a good lie, he can still get it in birdie range. The lie was a bit thick, but Woods does what Woods does (when he's on) and fires it at the flag. 6 feet for birdie. Well, it was a fine run. Woods' putt slips past ... and he knew it early. Now he needs to hole it out from the fairway on 18.

No. 18: Another missed fairway, way, way right, this on the 464-yard par-4 18th ... now he just needs to try to save par to stay at -9, 13 under for the tournament. Terrible lie, no angle to the green. Woods chops it out and hits a tree ... now he's on a patch of dirt (ground under repair) and trees between him and flag. Woods gets a drop, and he is sitting in troubling rough ... he has to go below the trees. Chops it out well, but it hops well past the hole and the par putt from 25 feet is not the kind you often make. Shows what we know ... Woods raises his arm, begins the walk and drains it to save par. He ends up with a 9-under 61, tying the course record. He is at 13 under, and his lead on second-place Keegan Bradley and Chris Wood is seven shots.